Beer: Ratings & Reviews

Reviews by MattyG85:

Poured from a 12 oz. bottle into a Duvel tulip glass. Bottle says enjoy by 03/08/14.

Appearance: Pours a deep and dark brownish mahogany with a moderate amount of bubbles. About one finger of off white head that fades into a thin patchy layer. Leaves a decent amount of lacing around the glass.

Taste: Like the aroma, a very yeasty and toasty malt forward taste with good notes of dark fruit. Good taste of the French and Belgian yeast upfront with a little spice. Toasted malts with a taste of biscuit, grains, toffee, caramel, and cracker. Roasty notes of chocolate, coffee, and little smoke. Good dark fruit presence with notes of dark cherries, figs, dates, raisin, and plum. Slight taste of brown sugar and some subtle earthy hops. A pretty good taste.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with a moderate amount of carbonation. Creamy and smooth with a nice light touch of spice. Finishes fairly dry.

Overall: A pretty good take on the Garde style. Good use of yeast with some really nice dark fruit and chocolate notes.

More User Reviews:

Deep brassy brown, thin lacing. Smells of leather, brown bread and spicy esters. Deep bready maltiness, toasty with dried hay in the back. Floral and spicy in the middle with some dark fruit and faint broth. Very layered, each sip opens up a new complexity. Dry finish.

Very well done, easy to sip with a ton of flavor that sticks around longer than expected.

Overall: I know that Biere de Garde is a wide ranging style, but this still seems a little off-style, maybe because of the Scottish yeast. It has a nice malt character, but it could use a little more spicy notes and dryness. It also seems a little bit like a Scotch Ale; maybe I am making that up due to my knowledge of the yeast.

Dark, crimson brown color with just over a finger of head that slowly settled to a thin cap. Moderate amount of sticky lacing is left down the glass.

The aroma would lead me to believe this is a Scottish style rather than a beer inspired from Belgium. Notes of toffee, caramel, toasted bread, fruity esters, and a hint of smoke.

Knowing that Jeff Williamson was the brewer I could almost taste some Flat Earth qualities. A type of beer one would of found in a Flat Earth bomber. Very malty flavor with hints of toffee, raisins, caramel, wood smoke, a lot of fruity esters, and an ever slight tartness. A bit more hops would of been appreciated to balance the sweetness.

Unlike the Flat Earth beers of old, this is appropriately carbonated. Quite a robust body with a nice mellow carbonation that allows the flavors to develop on the palate but still giving life to the beer.

Perhaps Belgian styled in name only. The smoke makes this a unique beer. Still a good beer that is worth a try.

A - Dark, dark brown, this beer's dark stained wood color only shines with clarity when held up to light. Fragile off white foam lightly clings to the glass' surface when the skim retires to a creamy halo.

M - Soft carbonation wanders through the mouth keeping the beer's overarching maltiness from becoming to sweet or full-bodied while dry, mildly spicy hops have the final say with a kiss of bitterness for balance.

O - Summit's Bière de Garde is a fine malt focused, dark representation of the style in that malt complexity shines with it's sweet, bready, and light chocolaty notes. The beer exhibits no yeast character or aged character though, and drinks somewhat like a stronger bock (though not doppelbock) perfect for the colder months ahead.

A-pours a dark brown color with a khaki colored 1 finger head spotty lacing on the glassS- hint of toffee and fig some cherrywood spices T- spice and hops on the front then some nice malts a Belgian sweet/funky one biscuit French malts some fruit caramel and toffee M- sweet and malty nicely carbonated O- tasty with many layers of flavor